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[474] tour of observation as far as Richmond; in May of the following year held a public meeting to counsel patience1 with wrongdoing, and calmness towards the oppressor, and then followed the Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society and the Massachusetts Colonization Society to their long resting-place. Some thought it was only the spook of2 the latter body. Mr. Garrison, in an address to his3 colored brethren, called it ‘a new society of old [colonization] materials.’ They would naturally ask what its object was. ‘The same question was propounded by an influential gentleman of this city (not an abolitionist) to one of the originators of this scheme. What was his4 reply? It was this:— “Our object is, to put down Garrison and his Friends.” Now, who are my friends if you are not? You are all my friends—my most grateful, attached, devoted friends. The object, then, of the American Union is to put you down, along with myself! I suspected as much, long ago.’ But they need only stand by him as heretofore, ‘and we will soon scatter to the winds this lofty but fragile fabric of persecution, pride and cowardice.’

In fact, the colored citizens of Boston refused 5 emphatically to be ‘relieved’ by the new saviour of society. The soulless diversion met the early doom predicted for it by its intended victim. His friends refused to be seduced or panic-stricken, or to assist in putting him down. Its most distinct achievement during its brief career was to paralyze the attempt to revive a lapsed anti-slavery society among the Andover students, with whom, in the6 first weeks of January, George Thompson was powerfully laboring. It encouraged the pro-slavery portion of the Faculty to warn the students against any connection with the American A. S. Society, on the ground that this would repel men who ‘are prejudiced against the name ’

1 Lib. 6.87, 91, 99, 105.

2 Lib. 5.103.

3 Lib. 5.23.

4 Charles Tappan, Lib. 10.10.

5 Lib. 5.35.

6 Lib. 5.27, 29, 50.

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